Tenth Collection of Seven Dailies

A technique for using Gimp:

Instead of using a brush to apply something, duplicate the layer you are working on (right click the layer in the layer list and it has the option, or do Ctrl+Shift+D).

Change the filters and settings on the copy, then put the altered layer below the original, and use the eraser brush on the original.

I have found this makes a vastly smoother gradient for some reason, and because the eraser has the anti-erase option you more or less do not have to worry about running out of or confusing undo steps. This also allows a brush to be used to apply changes that would not otherwise have a brush option.

You can also try different effects while keeping the same brush pattern, by making multiple duplicate layers and altering them differently.

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

– Exodus 34:14

Sundrop

A perfect sphere was emerging, confidently, patiently, but it looked so fearful as it trembled. Then a flash like the spark of First Life in the old, primordial years when it was conceived in the eyes of the sons of the Light.

Suspended in a hanging balance, housing a twinkle of ironically dreadful power, bearing the flawless, criss-cross flare, like swords forged in prisms by no hands, for only No Hands was skilled enough.

It was like a staring eye, with a sort of darkness around all its sides; it had no corners. Then it became perfect, it ceased trembling, the Light vanished, and the criss-cross winked out

when it fell.

– Patrick Lauser

This was a near drabble (almost exactly 100 words in length).

Eustace made a step toward him with both hands held out, but then drew back with a startled expression.
“Look here! I say,” he stammered. “It’s all very well. But aren’t you…? I mean didn’t you…”
“Oh, don’t be such an ass,” said Caspian.
“But,” said Eustace, looking at Aslan.
“Hasn’t he… er… died?”
“Yes,” said the Lion in a very quiet voice, almost (Jill thought) as if he were laughing. “He has died. Most people have, you know. Even I have. There are very few who haven’t.”

– From The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

An experimental poetry form.

Polymaths

One thing this article does not address is why there are so many nations with proverbs like “Jack of all trades, master of none.”
This is important to address because it is obviously the main reason people would reject the immensely valuable information the article is trying to express.

One thing is that the proverbs are obviously true: there are people just as they describe: whose tenth trade is hunger. So obviously there must be a difference between what these proverbs describe and what this article describes.

I am sure the difference is the difference between “trades” and “skills”.

A person who tries to divide his time and focus between various tasks, jobs, trades, etc., will of course fail.
But a person who brings all their skills behind one trade will obviously do better than someone who only applies one skill, especially if they only have one skill to apply.

So in fact a polymath is more focused than otherwise, because they bring more facets of their life to bear on a single focus.

Thus, this article powerfully supports these common proverbs rather than contradicting them.

“Jack of all skills: master of his trade.”

Something about wisdom is that the more you learn of one thing, the more you recognize its connection with everything else.

Phoenix

“Let us consider the marvelous sign which is seen in the regions of the east, that is, in the parts about Arabia.

There is a bird, which is named the phoenix. This, being the only one of its kind, liveth for five hundred years; and when it hath now reached the time of its dissolution that it should die, it maketh for itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and the other spices, into the which in the fullness of time it entereth, and so it dieth.

But, as the flesh rotteth, a certain worm is engendered, which is nurtured from the moisture of the dead creature and putteth forth wings. Then, when it is grown lusty, it taketh up that coffin where are the bones of its parent, and carrying them journeyeth from the country of Arabia even unto Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun;

and in the daytime in the sight of all, flying to the altar of the Sun, it layeth them thereupon; and this done, it setteth forth to return.

So the priests examine the registers of the times, and they find that it hath come when the five hundredth year is completed.”

– First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 25:1-5

Sometimes “truth”, so called, can be stranger than outright fiction.

My brother Nathaniel provides us with an apt penciling of this mythical Phoenix.

God be with you all! quote on the Phoenix from someone who believed in it, a comment on a valuable article about polymaths, a technique for Gimp, etcetera.